The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens is gaining growing interest as a tool for the valorisation of bio-waste in a circular economy perspective. Although a wide variety of studies are available for larvae rearing, the indoor breeding of adults still presents a great challenge for industrial purposes. This study was designed to assess the simultaneous influence of 3 different light sources (the Mix of LED UV:blue:green 1:1:3, White LED, Neon light) and 3 types of nutrition (sugar and water, only water, no sugar no water) on adult performances, obtaining different egg production parameters that included the number and weight of the egg masses and single eggs laid by the females, the duration of pre-oviposition and oviposition period, the adult life span, the hatchability of the eggs. Our results showed that production parameters are influenced mainly by nutrition rather than light factor, although light plays an important secondary role. Moreover, the presence of sugar positively affects the egg production (12,93-27,10 mg eggs/female) and increases oviposition period (18,2-31,8 days) and adult lifespan (20,79-27,11 days). Light sources also affect egg production parameters, with the exposure to the Mix of LEDs resulting in the best performance of flies. Results obtained from this study are very useful for the design and management of an efficient industrial black soldier fly mass rearing process.

High nature value (HNV) grassland systems are increasingly important for the ecosystem services they provide and for their socio-economic impact in the current constant-changing context. The aim of our paper is to evaluate the long-term effect of organic fertilizers on HNV systems in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania. As an objective we want to identify the optimal intensity of conservation management and its recognition based on indicator value plant species. The experiments were established in 2001 on the boreal floor and analyze the effect of a gradient of four organic treatments with manure. Fertilization with 10 t ha−1 manure ensures an increase in yield and has a small influence on diversity, and could be a real possibility for the maintenance and sustainable use of HNV. Each fertilization treatment determined species with indicator value that are very useful in the identification and management of HNV. The indicator species are useful in forecasting the fluctuations and successions in grasslands, determined by the modification of the dominance-codominance ratio and the real coverage of each species.

The harmonization of methodologies for the assessment of radicular endophytic colonization is a current necessity, especially for the arbuscular mycorrhizas. The functionality of mycorrhizal symbionts for plants can be described only by indicators obtained based on microscopic analysis. That is the reason for which a unifying methodology will lead to the achievement of highly correlated indicators comparable from one research to another. Our proposed methodology can further digitize the microscopic observations of colonization. The MycoPatt system is developed as a methodological framework for obtaining objective and comparable microscopic observations. The horizontal, vertical and transversal indicators are highly adaptable and allow the tracking of mycorrhizal colonization in root length. All structures developed by symbionts can be traced and the obtained metadata can be compared without any transformation. Mycorrhizal maps have a high degree of applicability in evaluating soil inoculum efficiency. In the future, the application of this method will lead to digital maps with a high degree of accuracy. MycoPatt allows the mathematical expression of colonization patterns, being a complex model that converts biological data into statistically comparable indicators. This will further allow obtaining inferences with applicative importance and similarity spectra for the colonizing fungi and host plants.

In the context of global climate change, the agricultural sector is one of the most responsive. This study focused on changes detected in temperature requirements for maize crops based on growing season length and the growing degree day indices in Central Romania (Cluj County). Daily air temperature data over the period 1981–2013 was derived from two databases with different spatial resolutions: Agri4Cast Resources Portal and ROmanian ClimAtic Dataset. Further analysis, performed for the entire period and three 10/13-y sub-periods, focused on calculating and mapping the area of arable land for each suitability zone. The main findings were: there were differences up to 16% in the area of suitability zones when switching from the results obtained based on the coarse spatial resolution to the improved one; the differences were larger for the shorter and more recent sub-periods than for the entire period or for the first decade; and there was considerable improvement of thermal conditions for maize crops in the focus region over the considered period—suitability zone I was not detected for the first sub-period and became dominant for the last one. It can be concluded that using or developing a better spatial resolution database is very important for maximizing the profitability of agriculture.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are beneficial for plant development and help absorb water and minerals from the soil. The symbiosis between these fungi and plant roots is extremely important and could limit crop dependence on fertilizers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of AMF on tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.), based on important agronomic traits of vegetative biomass, production, and fruits. The experiment was conducted in high tunnels, using 12 tomato genotypes under three different treatments: T1, control, without fertilizer and mycorrhizae colonization; T2, fertigation, without mycorrhizae colonization; and T3, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), seedling roots being inoculated with specialized soil-borne fungi. Plant growth, yield and fruit parameters indicated better results under mycorrhizal treatment. Root colonization with fungi varied significantly depending on the treatment and genotype, with a variation of 6.0–80.3% for frequency and 2.6–24.6% for intensity. For a majority of characteristics, the mycorrhization (T3) induced significant differences compared with the T1 and T2 treatments. In addition, AMF treatment induced a different response among the genotypes. Among the elements analyzed in the soil, significant differences were observed in phosphorous levels between planting the seedlings and after tomato harvesting and clearing of the plants. The results suggest that reducing fertilizers and promoting the symbiotic relationships of plants with soil microorganisms may have beneficial consequences for tomato crops.